Solo Expedition

I went on my first walk alone after Bernadette and I visited the Kurjey Dzong. I decided to walk the long way home - I thought for sure that I would get lost but I was pleasantly suprised. I experienced my first suspension bridge which was gorgeous and covered in prayer flags. After I climbed up from the bridge, I got stuck in an area surrounded by barbed wire. I looked around and wondered to myself how much barbed wire would hurt if I tried to climb over it. So I looked around and wondered if I should try and crawl under it. After I decided that neither of these choices sounded good, I started to look for a way around the barbed wire. And I found it on the edge of the cliff overlooking the river. So I skirted around the barbed wire and found my way back to the road. It was kind of a scary experience but disaster was avoided!
Kurjey Dzong - the Bhutanese proudly proclaim that all of the dzongs are made without a single nail!
A women with her prayer wheel circumambulating the Dzong.
Suspension bridge with prayer flags
Prayer flags - they are fabricated in five colors which symbolize water, wood, fire, earth and iron. Almost as beautiful as the ones my Rancho family made me for my going away party -

Completely unknown to me, it was Guru Rinpoche’s birthday (Book Club – remember the guy on the road trip??). He is known as the second Buddha and is recognized as bringing Buddhism to Bhutan. So he is kind of a big deal around here – his statue is probably in almost every dzong in Bhutan! Since I happened to visit a dzong on his birthday and pretended I was with a tour group, I was able to enter into the main alms room and view the ceremony performed by the monks. It was a completely surreal moment –

At the end of the day, we decided to take a break from traditional Bhutanese food and we had Himalayan Pizza. As you can tell from the pictures, we were basically in someone’s living room. The little girl in the picture handed Stanley the remote and left halfway through our meal. We stayed there for almost an hour more ordering beers so that we could watch their TV!!

Wow - I think that was my longest post yet! Hope you all had a great weekend!